Special characters in utl._url.escape

Question

Hi I am using httpuri for google translator to convert into different languages.
While passing the string, to escape the white spaces, I am using utl_url.escape . But many of my words contain special characters like '+ , @ , $ , ) ,. ,; [, ] etc.
Not sure how to pass these special characters in uri type.
httpuritype
              ('http://translate.google.com/?hl=' ||
                p_from || '&layout=1&eotf=1&sl=' || p_from ||
                '&tl=' || p_to || '&text=' ||
               utl_url.escape (p_words) || '#').getclob();few of my words for translation are
VALERIANA OFFICINALIS L. + HYPERICUM PERFORATUM L. + MELISSA OFFICINALIS L.
VALERIANA OFFICINALIS L. + HYPERICUM PERFORATUM L. + [ MELISSA OFFICINALIS] L.
please advise me how to pass these special characters to the URL.

Answer 1

I am using the below mentioned tranlation function to translate into different languages
/* Formatted on 16/08/2012 21:55:39 (QP5 v5.215.12089.38647) */
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION translator (p_words   IN CLOB, -- words to be translated
                                       p_to      IN VARCHAR2, -- language to translate to
                                       p_from    IN VARCHAR2) -- language to translate from
   RETURN CLOB
AS
   l_uritype   CLOB;
   l_result    CLOB;
BEGIN
   l_uritype :=
      httpuritype (
            'http://translate.google.com/?hl='
         || p_from
         || '&layout=1&eotf=1&sl='
         || p_from
         || '&tl='
         || p_to
         || '&text='
         || UTL_URL.escape (p_words)
         || '#').getclob ();
   l_result :=
      REGEXP_SUBSTR (
         l_uritype,
         '<span id=result_box class="short_text"><span[^>]*>(.*)</span></span>',
         1,
         1,
         'i',
         1);
   RETURN l_result;
END translator;
If i pass input with spl characters - like $ % & + etc - its all getting omited and its not getting translated because i am using UTL_URL.escape (p_words). This is escaping the special characters. But my req is to include those spl character and to get the output.
converting from german to english
select translator ('VALERIANA% OFFIC$INALIS L. + HYPERIC+$UM', 'en' , 'de' ) from dual;
without using the spl chars - program working fine.....
but if i use spl character i am not gettting o/.p
Edited by: 950814 on 30 Aug, 2012 7:48 PM